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Was war with Iraq our nation's only course? 
By Sam Osborne

 

April 03, 2006
Monday


Letter to the editor:
 
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice admits that thousands of "tactical" mistakes have been made in the conduct of the Iraqi war.  With mistakes thus defined, this plentiful number would not include President George W. Bush's lack of forethought, beyond one-upping his father by toppling Saddam Hussein, prior to his sending our troops to be mired in the fourth year of this military misadventure. 
 
Bush's broken-record mantra of justifications, "The world is better off without Saddam Hussein," has left him sounding like the perpetual delinquent that thinks he can talk his way out of anything.  If he can find a silver lining in a manmade disaster of his doing, surely he might even detect great purpose in a catastrophe of Mother Nature's making.
 
To wit, if a tsunami had swept up the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and had gotten Saddam Hussein, but in the bargain also took the lives of thousands of Iraqis, killed over 2,000 of our troops, permanently maimed untold more, seriously damaged our nation's hard-gained reputation, and cost our people billions upon billions of dollars, we might expect George W. Bush to place much value in the devastating wall of water and to take credit for its course.
 
He talks and talks and turns a deaf ear to the damning question; was war with Iraq our nation's only course?  The answer is no. 
 
When presidents of past were faced with the threatening march of Communism from a USSR bristling with real weapons of mass destruction and with agents secreted throughout the world, these leaders opted for containment of this threat until it inevitably fell of its own weight.  These courageous Commanders in Chief believed in the indomitable spirit of our people and the superiority of our free way of life.
 
Sam Osborne
West Branch, IA - USA



About: Sam Osborne is a retired psychology professor.

 

 

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